Single-family houses and apartments decrease in value, townhouses retain value in Langley City. What does this mean for your property tax bill?

With the new year in full swing, most people who own property should have received their property assessment notices from the BC Assessment Authority. These assessed property values will be used for calculating property taxes for Langley City, the Metro Vancouver Regional District, Langley School Board, and TransLink.

Overall in Langley City, there was an average 3.4% reduction in residential property values between July 1st, 2018 and July 1st, 2019. There was an average 12% increase in commercial property values and 16.4% increase in industrial property values.

For residential properties, the change in value impacted properties differently depending on location and type of housing.

Single-family housing in Langley City neighbourhoods south of the Nicomekl River saw an on-average reduction in property value of 5.8%.

For single-family housing north of the Nicomekl River, on-average property values increased 4.1%. This is likely due to the redevelopment potential of land north of the Nicomekl to apartments and row-houses which is permitted under the current official community plan.

Row-houses/townhouses in the City saw on-average property values stay relatively static between July 1st, 2018 and July 1st, 2019.

Apartments in Langley City saw an on-average property value decrease of 4.1%.

So, what does this mean for your 2020 property taxes?

Your taxes are tied to the budget of Langley City and other local government organizations. If your property value increases or decrease, it doesn’t impact these budgets as the tax rate is set to collect the money required to cover the budgets via changing the mill rate.

Even though Langley City’s residential property values on-average decreased, this does not mean that the City will have less revenue.

So, why are there differences in property tax increases or decreases between different residential properties in our community?

If your residential property value changes above the average, you will see a higher increase in property tax. If your residential property changes below the average, you will see a lower increase or possible decrease in property tax.

In Langley City, this means that people who own single-family homes south of the Nicomekl River will see the lowest increase in property tax (or possible decrease) in the 2020 tax year. Apartment owners will see the second lowest increase. Row-house/townhouse owners will see the second highest increase. While people who own single-family homes north of the Nicomekl River will see the highest increase in property tax compared to the previous year.

For more information about how this work, please read a post I wrote last year called, “One residential mill rate causes uneven property tax changes in Langley City. Find out why.”

For more information about historical property values and taxes by address, visit Langley City’s website.

To investigate assessed property values, please visit the BC Assessment Authority’s Interactive Map.